


Carlos never had another daughter

by Saltylocks



Series: Carlos the scientist [18]
Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, M/M, Medical Examination, Subways, time rift
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-26
Updated: 2014-11-26
Packaged: 2018-02-27 02:22:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2675348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saltylocks/pseuds/Saltylocks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carlos wakes up in a medical facility, covered in tentacles.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Carlos never had another daughter

**Author's Note:**

> Hey you, sorry for not updating sooner. I blame the system, the school system that is.
> 
> I felt bad for leaving you with such a dreadful cliffhanger so this is just fluff and plot, not much porn. Next time, there will be more of that. 
> 
> And hey, thanks.
> 
> Edit: thanks to letssendacountrysomecupcakes for pointing out my typo's. They are all changed now.

Carlos woke up covered in tentacles, this time the warm, black ones he knew. The man they belonged to was tucked close behind him, squeezing him tight. At first Carlos thought they were at home, that this was just going to be a normal day, or as normal it could be in Night Vale. 

Then the bed made a weird sound under them as he moved and the realization hit him: he wasn't home, he had been kidnapped and hurt, and even though he was in Cecil's arms, he was not at home. 

As Carlos started to move, other sounds made their way to his brain, things he had ignored, like distant sounds of bowling pins toppling over, rattling of machines and people laughing. Opening his eyes, Carlos looked around at what could only be described as a medical facility. Everything was sterile and well kept, but also looked very old. The microscope on the bench a couple of feet from him looked like something from the dark ages, as did the two-headed rat in formalin on the shelf above it. The bed they were laying in was also something of a relic, made from wood and carved with runes. 

“Carlos,” Cecil breathed as the scientist turned his head, a hoarse low tone in his voice. “I'm so glad you are alive.”

Cecil did not look happy, his hair fat and sticking to his face, layers of small white stripes on his cheeks and on his crumpled clothes. He had been crying. Fear struck Carlos like a stone in the face and he reached down to touch where Kevin had pierced him right through with his own make-shift weapon. He didn't feel any pain yet, but he guessed he was drugged, he felt like he was moving through saltwater. He shivered as he touched his torso, but he had a lot of bandages and it was hard to feel anything through them. Carlos looked over at Cecil who rose up on one shoulder.

“Where is Skyler?” 

“At Steve's,” Cecil said, stroking Carlos back, giving him some room to move.

“How long...?”

“A couple of days, maybe. Time is an illusion, after all, I hope you didn't expect me to keep track of it.”

“Where are we?”

“Under the bowling alleys at Desert Flower Bowling Alley and Arcade Fun Complex,” Cecil stated, babbling the full name with perfect coherency. 

“Why?” Carlos whispered.

“Well, Teddy is the only doctor we have in Night Vale.”

Carlos nodded and fell silent, looked up at the ceiling.

“What happened?” he asked, after a while.

“You were attacked, by that horrible Kevin,” Cecil said, and his eyes went wet and soft. “He kidnapped you. And I didn't know where to look, and you managed to call me through the tattoos...”

Cecil stilled, trying to get a grip on himself. A small smile emerged on the radio host's face, despite it all.

“It was so clever, beautiful Carlos, I never thought of that, probably because I never shared them with anyone. And we were able to find you, and we saw.”

Cecil's voice grew darker by the minute, and his eyes turned black, wrathful.

“We saw what he did to you, and we took care of him.”

Carlos thought of asking but then he realized he already knew, just from looking at Cecil's face and curled up fists. He could ask again later. Carlos swallowed the lump in his throat and decided it was better to rip off all of the band-aid all at once rather than staying in denial.

“I could feel him stab me,” he said, and Cecil calmed down immediately, hugging his scientist tighter. “What's... is there a diagnosis?”

“Well, Teddy said you are going to be just fine with some rest...”

“And the eggs?” Carlos said.

He could feel himself tensing up, Cecil's tentacles hugging him tighter. Cecil looked so lost, a crease appearing in his forehead.

“The eggs are fine, Carlos,” he said. “Is that why you act so..? Oh, that awful... he missed them, and most of you, he just punched through some skin and viscera. It bled a lot, so much, but Teddy helped out and he says you are going to be alright.”

Carlos had tensed up so much, he felt the tears well up. He had never had anything to cry about before he arrived in Night Vale, but now he cried, both from happiness and from shock of what he had been through, and Cecil enveloped him again, cooing and stroking his hair, crying too.

“You better not be screwing with me,” Carlos said when he could talk.

“Never about this,” Cecil promised and his voice was so low and intense, Carlos could only but kiss him.

A harrumph was heard behind them and the grey-bearded bowling alley owner/M.D. appeared at the foot of the bed. The man was tall and built like a football player and he glared at them with scrutinizing eyes. On his head was one of those little head mirrors that Carlos had only seen in old movies and he carried a clip board.

“All better, I see,” Teddy said, and his smile was tired but genuine. 

As they nodded back and Cecil reluctantly got out of the bed, Teddy leaned over Carlos and quietly, with efficient movements, began to examine him. His questions was friendly, brief and uttered with such a speed that Carlos realized the doctor must have been doing this for a very long time.

“Any lasting pain?”

“Only when I move.”

“Can you sit up for me?”

Carlos did, a billion questions on his tongue but not uttering them in then face of the examination. Teddy just smiled in that detached, professional way and asked him to perform a series of movements. Carlos was surprised with how flexible he was even though he had just been impaled. 

“Let's get those bandages off you,” Teddy said, slowly reaching around Carlos and loosening the fabric. 

“Are you sure that's a good idea?” 

“Carlos, just listen to the good doctor,” Cecil sighed behind him. “I know scientists are supposed to question everything, but Teddy knows what he is doing.”

Carlos kept still, just sitting there as the bandages came off. As he had moved he'd felt the eggs tumble around a little and that made him feel good, like everything was back in its usual place. He watched the last of the bandages come off and glimpsed down on himself. The hole where the rod had gone in had shrunk significantly, and already healed over, there was only some white scar tissue that bulged inwards a bit. Carlos touched it. It didn't hurt. Cecil leaned in to look as well.

“Nice job, Teddy,” the radio host said, approvingly.

“Are you sure I was only out for a few days?”

Teddy looked at him for a moment, and then seemed to reach some sort of decision.

“Since it's you, Carlos, I can probably tell you,” the doctor said. “I have what is known as a healing touch, which speeds up the process quite a lot from what you are used to.”

Carlos turned to look the gray-bearded man in the eyes. Teddy didn't look like he was joking. Cecil shrugged, like it was nothing new. He had probably covered it on the radio, for all Carlos knew.

“How are you a bowling hall owner if you have such a gift?” Carlos finally said, placing his hand over the wound.

Teddy looked away. 

“Always liked bowling,” he stated with a small smile. “And the land prices out here are good. Besides, it's not like all of us have a choice anyway.”

He seemed lost in thought for a moment, before eyeing them both up and down.

“I need to speak with you two about another matter,” he said, a little less uptight, a cautious hunch in his shoulders as he sat down beside Carlos on the bed. Cecil perked up, eyeing Teddy without pupils in that special way of showing concern.

“I haven't really seen you people around that much since the incident with that small civilization under my bowling alley. Crafty little buggers. Anyway, it seems that quite a lot has happened, stuff that you aren't allowed to speak about on the radio. You-”

Teddy nodded at Carlos.

“-you are pregnant for the second time. My guess is it's consensual and that it is Cecil's, correct?”

Cecil had turned red, or rather that purple color he turned when he was mortified. Carlos sat up straighter, ready to fight if Teddy so much as mentioned getting rid of the eggs.

“Yes, they are Cecil's,” he said, “and of course it's consensual.”

“Oh, good, good,” the doctor said, letting out a relieved sigh. “Don't look at me like that son, I didn't mean anything by it! I am just trying to make sense of this. This is so exiting, though! Did you have a womb before you met Cecil?”

Cecil gasped and it was Carlos' turn to turn red. 

“That is kind of a personal question,” he mumbled. 

“So, no, then. Excellent...!”

Teddy still jotted down short notes on his clip board. Carlos looked at him, and couldn't help but recognized his own excitement in Teddy, the scientist's delight in finding out something new. But he still felt it was a kind of personal question. 

“Is this going somewhere?” Carlos asked sharply.

“Yes,” Teddy said, straightening up, “one final question: do you have permission for your children?”

“Of course, doctor Williams,” Cecil said, overly formal. “We have a mayoral apology.”

Teddy whistled. 

“Nice one,” he said. “Then I think I should show you something.”

He waved at Carlos to put on his clothes and come with him. He marched out of the office, a glint in his old brown eyes. Carlos looked down the dark corridor they were walking towards, with sand colored wall paper and only lit up by the candle Teddy held. 

“Should we run for it?” Carlos asked Cecil as they followed the doctor.

“Come on, Teddy is fine,” Cecil said and took Carlos' hand. “We'll at least give him this, since he healed you.”

Carlos nodded and they followed Teddy through winding roads underground. After some time, the scientist noticed the sand colored walls had turned to actual sand, and sometimes he heard rumbling from below them. The floor was first linoleum plastic like a hospital, then sand and then they suddenly walked into an abandoned subway station. “Night Vale Bowling Alley” was stated in purple letters on the white tiled walls. As Teddy whisked them along, Carlos trampled over abandoned newspapers and fliers announcing the building of the new subway, on brown paper with faces all over it. The paper crumbled under his feet and their smiles looked nothing like human smiles. The tiles under Carlos' bare feet was dusty and covered in black footprints. He could hear the tunnels rumbling behind him. Like a train was coming in.

“Walk faster,” Cecil urged him on, and Carlos almost ran towards the end of the station where a door led to some stairs. The subway passed them just as they got inside. Carlos caught a glimpse of the train. The passengers were human, and they were pressing against the cart window. No one was smiling. Then the door closed and mercifully drowned out the sounds of the subway. Carlos looked up at Cecil who gave him a sad glance.

They kept walking up the stairs and were suddenly in a small basement, with tools and storage boxes. They took another stair made of planks and stood, dusty and blinking, in a warm and well-lit kitchen. A woman with red hair and a flat face turned around and looked very angry when she saw Teddy. 

“And where the hell have you been?” she asked, her gills fluttering. She looked like someone combined a cod with a human. Carlos tried not to stare. 

“Had a last minute job,” Teddy said, kissing his wife on the cheek. “Who can say no to Carlos the Scientist?”

Teddy's wife became quiet, staring at the other two guests emerging from the basement. Carlos couldn't help but stare back. 

“Mr Scientist! I am honored!” she squeaked after a second, bowing deeply. “And is this the voice of Night Vale too?”

She bowed to Cecil as well. Cecil immediately bowed back, so Carlos clumsily followed his lead.

“I am Jane, Jane Williams. Boys, boys, get in here!”

A litter of children tumbled down the stairs, all of them dirty but in clothes that might had been clean in the beginning of the day. They had seven children, six boys and a girl. The boys were laughing and swarming the kitchen, but Carlos eyed the smallest girl. She looked nothing like other children, all red haired and thin lipped like their mother. She reminded Carlos of something and he softly nudged Cecil, unsure what was going on. Teddy saw him look and spoke very softly when he called the girl over to them.

“About a year ago, I healed an agent from the City Council. He asked me to help him hide something, their employer weren't there and I have no cameras in the basement. He gave me a leather bag. He said something about the parents being too well guarded and that he had no way of smuggling the eggs back to them. Personally, he had said, the whole thing disgusted him, and the people who took them weren't interested in them anymore.”

Carlos' brain was running backwards, as his knees felt weak. He just kept staring, Teddy's voice drowning in the blood rushing through his ears. Beside him, Cecil did something similar, opening his mouth and then closing it several times.

“We never gave up hope that... the other eggs never hatched, but Hazel's did,” they heard Teddy say like he was far away. Hazel?

“Are you sure?” Cecil whispered, stunned, pressing against Carlos. The children in front of them looked up at their parents, the oldest with questions in their eyes. Jane had tears in her eyes.

“Children,” Teddy said. “This is Hazel's parents.”

The red haired boys looked over at the two stunned men at their basement door. The youngest boy whined.

“Is Hazel going away?” he wondered.

“Are they going to take her from us?” one of the middle boys asked.

“I guess it is up to her parents, Eddy,” Teddy said with a little sadness in his voice.

Carlos couldn't breathe as he met eyes with his second daughter. Her skin a milky smooth brown, black hair like his own, and big brown eyes looking up at them like she was just as curious to see them. Carlos fell to one knee. 

“Hello Hazel,” he said, carefully.

What if she wouldn't want to come with them? She just stood there, big brown eyes studying the strange men in the kitchen. Carlos wondered what they looked like to her, and wished he had had a nicer lab coat on, not the dirty bloody clothes he had had since he was stabbed. He wished he had had time to look in a mirror. But then it didn't matter, because the small girl popped into a bunch of tentacles and rolled over to them where she embraced Carlos and reached out for Cecil simultaneously.

“Finally,” she chimed through a hundred tiny mouths.

“Sorry it took so long to find you,” Cecil said softly, Carlos could only sob and grasp her tightly.

**

Later they sat on the lawn, a glass of lemonade in their hands, watching the children play. Hazel had the tentacle control down to precision, holding down her brothers and have them beg for mercy by tickling them until they screamed and begged her to let them go. They had decided that Hazel could come visit the Williams as often as she liked, and Carlos hoped they would be okay with babysitting Skyler from time to time too, as Cecil actually seemed to like Teddy a lot more than Steve Carlsberg. He couldn't keep from looking at their new found daughter, laughing and twittering in the grass.

“What's up with the fence, Teddy?” Cecil had just asked, and Carlos listened with half an ear, his attention to the children.

“We live on top of a time rift, and it is kind of strong over there,” Teddy said and took a swig from his glass. “When little Edward was a newborn, he crawled into it in an unguarded moment, and then all the other boys crawled out. He only touched it, and the other boys are him, just out of other timelines. But we didn't need it to happen again, so we built us a fence.”

“What a little rascal!” Cecil chuckled, and Carlos looked at the boys. They did kind of all look the same, move the same.  
“Sorry for asking, but I'm new after all,” Carlos said. “Do they know they are the same?”

“Well, I think so, we've told them. And they are all Edward, just variations of it, the oldest is Ed, then Edd, Ted, Eddy, Wally, and Dee.”

“I see.”

Carlos leaned into Cecil, exhausted. Cecil put his arm around him, pulling his scientist closer.

“This has been a good day,” Carlos whispered to Cecil, nuzzling his neck and feeling his body relax.

“I agree, dear Carlos,” he heard Cecil murmur as he drifted off to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> You know the drill: leave something somewhere if you liked/didn't this. That would be cool of you<3
> 
> I thought the proverb of the last hiatus episode of Welcome to Night Vale was kind of lovely, so I will leave you with it.
> 
> "If you are worried your writing isn't good, remember, the Earth is warming and soon good and bad writing alike will be under water."


End file.
